By Zephyria Ero didn’t hear anything, but he immediately lowered his head. It was the instinct to survive.
The kicked wall was pushed straight back and flew away without even wobbling. The barrier, about 11m long, couldn’t withstand the heavy impact and broke in two, colliding with the wall behind it.
Kwaaaang―!
It seemed like it would end there, but even the opposite wall, which had been seamless, was instantly half-destroyed, and even the wall beyond that was pierced.
As the space expanded, a gust of wind, delayed by half a beat, shook Ero’s and the participant’s hair wildly. The participant, who was about to ask, ‘Is that your brother?’, barely opened his eyes and buried his turtle neck in his shoulders.
The dust carried by the gust obscured the view, but the faint figure flickering in the gaps was clearly visible. Only taller, he thought they were the same small fry as the rest… What was this tingling sensation on his skin?
Trembling at the unknown sense of oppression, the participant, his hair a bird’s nest, turned his eyes to the wide-open back. At the same time, Leonardo, who had rotated once by the recoil, extended his arm forward and fired an air sphere. The dusty haze that had risen scattered in all directions, and the devastation of the destroyed maze was widely spread by the wind pressure.
The trajectory of the extended sphere endlessly penetrated the stacked barriers. At the end, the shaking barrier was pushed over like dominoes, as if the impact hadn’t subsided yet. As a result, vibrations and noise of ‘thud, thud, thud’ echoed in the silent area for about 5 seconds. Leonardo, who was floating in the air, put his hand to his eyebrow and whistled briefly.
“As expected.”
When the last barrier fell back, a bizarre cylindrical structure came into view. Leonardo instinctively thought that was the exit and landed on the ground. Then, leaping and flying straight, he called Ero.
“Follow me!”
Ero, who had been crouching under the shattered barrier, raised his head at his shout.
He got up and looked around dazedly, and seeing the wide-open path, he hurriedly chased after Leonardo.
“Yes, yes! Brother, let’s go!”
He was about to run straight, but he suddenly stopped. He rummaged through his pockets and threw something back. The flying object drew a trajectory in the air and fell with a clang at the feet of the tied-up participant. It was a Token.
The number was ’17’, which he had been about to give to Leonardo earlier.
“Hey, that’s from our brother!”
Ero’s voice echoed like a canyon in the gaps of the maze.
The participant stared blankly at the two receding figures.
Even Thanatos, whom he had seen sticking his head through the hole, had tried to break through the maze wall several times. But the wall was only scratched, and he couldn’t break it.
But that guy… no, that brother who even Council Kajard could beat….
“Was he ‘real’?”
The participant muttered to himself. The distant silhouettes disappeared in the blink of an eye among the falling dust.
Ero, his eyes sparkling, had a grin on his face as he ran. He nimbly jumped over the fragments of the barrier piled up at the bottom, like clearing hurdles. Even so, he reached out towards the hem of Leonardo’s cloak, who was going ahead. The fluttering cloth brushed his fingertips, and he finally realized it was real.
“Wow, Brother. I’m really sorry for saying it over and over, but you’re really amazing! How did you do that?”
“…….”
“No, if you were going to do this, you should have just broken it from the beginning―. Were you pretending to struggle to save Council Gira too?”
Ero kept exclaiming. But Leonardo was staring at the floor, counting how many barriers had fallen.
‘Six, seven, eight….’
The 11m barriers were lined up, so the length was quite long. He sent his gaze ahead of his body and counted to the last wall, and it was exactly 11. Just in case, he checked the number of Tokens, but the count didn’t decrease even as he flew over the half-destroyed barrier.
It was still ‘521’, which he had last checked. Leonardo, convinced, opened his mouth.
“I was struggling. I just found a shortcut now.”
“A shortcut?”
“Yeah, a shortcut worth 11 Tokens. The guide said at the beginning that 1 is deducted each time you pass through a wall. But it wouldn’t take 11 for no reason.”
Ero traced his memory and clapped his hands as if he had realized something. Then the place where the number of Tokens had decreased significantly, which the participant he had met earlier had mentioned, might all be hints for shortcuts. The difference between simply thinking it was strange and getting a clue from it seemed to determine whether one could escape quickly.
Suddenly, Ero remembered when the first part of the game ended, and he met Sandra, who was the host of the game with Leonardo. Sandra had said this at that time.
‘The one who can distinguish between the clear rules defined by the rules and other means, and furthermore, who can doubt the information I judge, will be the variable and another strong person in this league.’
Ero stared at Leonardo’s back.
‘What if the overwhelming strong person and another strong person are the same person? He’ll be the new winner, right?’
His face was filled with pride. At the same time, the structure that was getting closer also began to appear in Ero’s field of vision, which was bound to be relatively low.
He pointed to the shape that was suspected to be the exit.
“Brother! That pillar-like place―, Ack!”
Leonardo, who had stopped abruptly in the air when he heard the scream, turned around.
Unbelievably, the flat floor opened up, and Ero was falling straight into the black space.
“Brotheeeer―!”
His outstretched voice echoed pathetically. Leonardo stared at Ero, who was moving away, with a dumbfounded expression for a moment. Then, belatedly regaining his senses, he jumped into the black hole with him.
“Damn―.”
‘Isn’t a trap like this cheating?’
He thought that the dog holes and shortcuts weren’t normal from the beginning, but he never thought that even the floor would open. He didn’t know what kind of structure it was. Leonardo reached out to Ero and descended into the dark ground together.
“Congratulations on passing the first part. Would you like to move on to the second part right away?”
It was definitely dark all around, but the view suddenly brightened. Leonardo and Ero frowned at the glare and the impact of the fall, and barely opened their eyes.
They weren’t hurt because the air mat for injury prevention supported them from below. However, the two men were tangled up, causing discomfort due to the pain and excessive contact.
“Passed?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Ugh―!”
Leonardo, pushing away Ero who was sprawled on top of him with one hand, staggered to his feet. The smiling guide was looking down at them.
Leonardo looked up at the sky, which was shining with a different light than before.
Then he naturally shifted his gaze to his feet. It was to check his shadow, but something else caught his eye first.
“This is….”
The floor was all transparent. If there weren’t grid lines drawn on it, he might have mistaken it for empty space.
This seemed to be above the barrier that was blocking the upper part of the maze. And under his feet, he could see the participants still wandering through the maze and the structure of the maze at a glance. Even the scene of the shortcut he had broken through being cleaned up in an orderly manner by the urgently deployed members.
He felt strange when he thought that they had been watching everything from above. The sight of him deploying Magic Circles or using flames must have already been exposed, but it was fortunate that he didn’t melt the walls.
‘You should have told me in advance.’
At the same time, Ero, who was staggering and half-rising, made a fuss while looking at the floor. Leonardo’s gaze shifted to him.
‘That guy has a knack for finding paths.’
At that moment, a shout was heard from afar.
“Uwaaaaa!”
The two reflexively turned their heads. Then the scenery that was cast in front of them was as bizarre as the floor they were standing on.
This was clearly inside the stadium, but a vast sandy desert was spread out in the field of vision. It was a huge area covering about one-third of the circular stadium wall.
Another strange thing was that the scenery was angular, as if rectangular pieces of desert photos had been attached one by one.
It was like looking at the outside world from inside a spotless transparent igloo. It seemed that the inside of the stadium was arbitrarily connected to the outside using Portals and mirrors.
The participants were crossing the desert, each holding something in their hands and throwing it towards the hot sand. Just as he was wondering about the rules, the waiting guide approached with black spheres in both hands.
“I will now begin explaining the rules for the second part. This game is ‘Mana Orb Throwing’.”
“Mana Orb?”
“Yes, this Mana Orb is a transformed form of the Tokens you two possessed. Do you see the number here?”
The Mana Orb, which had stripes along the edges on a black background like a betting chip, had the numbers ’80’ and ‘541’ engraved in the center, respectively.
“We have added 20 to the final Token count when passing the first part.”
The size was good and appropriate enough for even an adult woman to hold in one hand. The guide grabbed Ero’s arm, who was still sitting on the floor, and helped him up. Then he placed the ’80’ Mana Orb on his hand.
He lifted it up together, and then let go with the warning, ‘Be careful, it’s quite heavy’.
“Uwak!”
Ero’s arm was pulled down for a moment, and he fell ungracefully. At the same time, the Mana Orb he was going to use rolled to the floor, and the sound was unusual.
It was a heavy sound that made Leonardo’s expression stiff for a moment, like a dull thud as if an iron ball had been buried.
The guide, who picked up the Mana Orb and handed it to Ero again, continued the explanation.
“The number decreases by 1 each time you throw this Mana Orb. The participant can only move to the point where the Mana Orb fell on the floor, and can throw the Mana Orb again when they reach the location. The number of times is as many as the number engraved on the Mana Orb. If you go straight west across the desert, you will find an oasis island. The task of the second part is to arrive there with the Mana Orb.”
Like the previous Tokens, it was not an elimination if the number became 0, but the guide added that participants could be immediately eliminated and return home if they expressed their intention to give up, especially considering the hot heat and dangerous elements of the desert area.
“The Mana Orb must be thrown directly by the owner, and weapons and abilities other than Teleport can be used freely. However, you cannot physically touch another participant’s Mana Orb. Situations where thrown Mana Orbs collide and interfere with each other are judged to be unavoidable incidents during the game and will not be dealt with separately. Of course, the number of times will be deducted by 1 as it is, so please be careful. Do you have any additional questions?”
Ero, whose legs were shaking, barely got up and held the Mana Orb awkwardly with both hands. Then he looked at Leonardo with a tearful face.
“Brother, this is heavier than I thought!”
Leonardo, who was staring at him intently, asked the guide.
“How much does that weigh?”
The guide smiled and handed the ‘541’ Mana Orb to Leonardo.
“20% of the Mana Orb’s number, the unit is kg.”